Matthew McConaughey — There is Redemption

I never thought of Matthew McConaughey as a joke, but a few years ago a lot of critics did, and he didn’t do much to dissuade any of them. He was becoming a guy who appeared in movies (really bad movies) like FOOL’S GOLD. He was becoming someone whose career consisted of taking off his shirt. GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIEND’S PAST, etc.

And then, all of a sudden, he began to take himself seriously. It began quietly enough with THE LINCOLN LAWYER. Then came BERNIE, KILLER JOE, THE PAPERBOY (bad movie, but he was good in it), MAGIC MIKE and now MUD. He has, by choosing to make good movies — by going for the projects that will NOT make the most money — become a respectable actor. In fact, he is practically at the Jessica Chastain stage where, if he’s in a movie, you have to give it the benefit of the doubt.

McConaughey’s is rather the opposite of the career trajectory of Robert De Niro, who was a genius for about ten years, and now stars in movies like THE BIG WEDDING. You can read my review of that piece of, uh, quality entertainment here.

Here’s something about THE BIG WEDDING I don’t mention in my review. De Niro has a voiceover that starts the movie. If you watch the movie — and why oh why oh why oh why would you do such a thing? — notice how that voiceover sounds, for all the world, like De Niro is in a booth reciting words he is reading for the very first time.

Finally — I might as well address it — for the last few weeks, people have been coming up to me commiserating, or wanting to commiserate, about my reviews and my column appearing appearing on SFChronicle.com Folks, I have to tell you. I love the premium site. If the Chronicle thinks it can make money off my reviews and help keep my colleagues employed, I’m not only willing for that to happen. That’s a privilege and an honor.

Here’s the deal. If you subscribe to SFChronicle.com for $12 a month, the Sunday paper is included with your subscription. (If you actually cut coupons, that’s zero dollars a month.) But $12 is three lattes, and that’s assuming you’re a deadbeat, like me, and don’t leave a dollar tip. For $12 a month, you get the Sunday paper — which is great — AND you get access to SFChronicle.com.

The notion that all information should be free is an early 21st century notion that’s going to die in the early 21st century. If you think free journalism is great, contrast the reporting that real reporters did coming out of Boston and Watertown with the garbage-in-garbage-out coming off the Internet. Reporting is a learned skill, a profession, a serious enterprise that is essential to the community and is worthy of a community’s support.

Think of it this way. It’s $12 a month to help maintain a world in which computers don’t replace people. Do it. It’s a good paper. It’s your paper. It’s why we’re both here.